A string of troubling inflation reports in recent days is likely to lead Federal Reserve officials to make a larger-than-expected 0.75-percentage-point interest-rate increase at their meeting this week. Last week’s inflation report from the Labor Department showed a bigger jump in prices in May than officials had anticipated and two consumer surveys showed households’ expectations of future inflation have increased in recent days. The Fed last raised rates by 0.75 percentage point at a meeting in 1994. The Wall Street Journal
Grocery store price hikes are the highest they’ve been in 40 years, and inflation is largely to blame. Meal staples are seeing huge leaps in costs, including meat, dairy and eggs. The cost of eggs went up 32% from this time last year, meats, poultry and fish saw a 14% increase and dairy jumped 12%. According to the latest numbers from the Consumer Price Index from the Labor Department, the cost of groceries surged 12% for the year in May— the largest year-on-year increase since the 1970s. News12 New Jersey
The single biggest factor driving high gas prices now is the price of crude oil. According to the Energy Information Administration, the cost of the raw material accounted for 60% of the price of a gallon of regular gasoline. That compares to 52% the same time a year ago, and just 25% in April 2020 — when the pandemic sapped demand for fuel, along with most other goods and commodities. The New York Times
The Jan. 6 House Select Committee made a wide-ranging case on June 13 that former President Donald Trump created and relentlessly spread the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election had been stolen from him in the face of mounting evidence from an expanding chorus of advisers that he had been legitimately defeated. The committee, in its second hearing, showed through live witness testimony and recorded depositions how the former president, defying many of his advisers, insisted on declaring victory on election night before the votes were fully counted, then sought to challenge his defeat with increasingly outlandish and baseless claims that he was repeatedly informed were wrong. The New York Times
Bill Stepien, a longtime operative in New Jersey Republican circles, withdrew from testifying before the House Select Committee at the last minute on June 13. “Due to a family emergency, Mr. William Stepien is unable to testify before the Select Committee this morning,” the committee said in a brief statement as Stepien’s wife went into labor. In his absence, the committee used Stepien’s video deposition which showed he clearly did not support the president’s claims on election night that there was widespread election fraud. New Jersey Globe
The plan to reconfigure the train station millions of New Jersey residents use to commute to work or visit New York City took a significant step forward last week. Gov. Phil Murphy took part in an announcement June 10 with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in partnership with Amtrak and NJ Transit, is requesting proposals from architecture and engineering firms to guide the New York Penn Station Reconstruction. “Daily commuters, occasional visitors—regardless of which direction they are traveling—deserve a Penn Station that is inviting and comfortable,” Murphy said. “They deserve better than the continually cramped and constantly muggy halls and claustrophobic, low-slung ceilings; they deserve better than the current maze of walkways that deserve their own page on Google Maps.” North-JerseyNews.com
Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has pre-ordered 51,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years and is encouraging providers to extend their hours and prioritize young kids. The state Health Department has not yet publicly released distribution plans and will likely make weekly orders for the vaccine depending on how strong demand is. The Record
A panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration is meeting June 14 to consider whether use of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine should be expanded to include children ages 6 through 17. FDA approval, expected within days, would open the use of Moderna’s vaccine to children for the first time in the U.S., and give anyone still intending to inoculate their children 6 years and older against COVID-19 a second option. The Wall Street Journal
Secaucus will close its municipal-run COVID-19 vaccination clinics at the end of June. Town officials said the clinic was closing due to a grant from the state used to fund the clinics had run dry and the amount of people seeking vaccinations had dropped. Hudson Reporter
New Jersey on June 13 reported two new COVID-19 deaths and 1,223 new confirmed cases. There were 785 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases in the 70 of 71 state hospitals that reported. Of those hospitalized, 72 were in intensive care and 35 were on ventilators. New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 0.89 with the positivity rate at 9.1% for tests conducted on June 8. North-JerseyNews.com
Residents will no longer need to present a physical card or document to prove their Social Security number to get a Real ID or New Jersey license starting June 15. The Motor Vehicle Commission said that the requirements have been revised to allow for electronic verification of a Social Security number. The MVC will verify the applicant’s Social Security number, name and birthdate with the Social Security Administration. If they don’t match, the application will be denied. Real ID can be used as identification for domestic air travel and to gain access to federal buildings after May 3, 2023. NJ.com
State Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-22) is optimistic the state budget will come together smoothly before the June 30 deadline. Scutari doesn’t expect there to be any major roadblocks to getting the budget passed on time, adding “we’ve had a lot of good conversations with the governor’s office, and I think we’re moving in the right direction.” New Jersey Globe
State Senators voted June 13 to advance a bill that would allow the attorney general to sue gun makers and retailers for damages for endangering public health and safety, part of the latest gun-reform package advocated by Gov. Phil Murphy. Under the proposal, the state attorney general could seek remedies for public nuisance violations committed by firearms companies, including abatement or other injunctive relief of the activity creating the public nuisance, damages and attorney’s fees and costs. NJ1015.com
Lawmakers on the State Senate Law and Public Safety Committee unanimously cleared a bail reform bill that removed a series of gun possession charges from the list of crimes for which a defendant would face a presumption of detention before trial on June 13. “The bill does what it’s intended to do, and that’s take violent criminals—the kind of criminals that folks are concerned about being in their neighborhoods and on the streets—off the streets and protects the principles of bail reform as well,” said State Sen. Joe Cryan (D-20), the bill’s prime Senate sponsor. New Jersey Monitor
The State Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee advanced two bills put forth by Senate Democrats which would seek to address the burgeoning mental health crisis in the U.S. and New Jersey. One bill would would establish a 9-8-8 national suicide prevention hotline in response to several actions taken at the federal level and the second proposal would require health insurance carriers to provide coverage benefits for the treatment of mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders. North-JerseyNews.com
John McCann has taken a six-vote lead in the Republican primary for the Oakland Borough Council, but the race for the second seat between incumbent Kevin Slasinski and insurgent Carol Ann Rose is tied. McCann, the 2018 Republican primary for Congress in New Jersey’s 5th district, leads with 336 votes, with Slasinski and Rose each at 330. Rose’s running mate, Kerri Sirinides, is in fourth place with 316 votes. Rose had led on election night with 293 votes, followed by McCann (292), Slasinski (288) and Sirinides (285). New Jersey Globe
Fairleigh Dickinson University recently conducted a poll that found legal betting is booming and more prevalent in the context where it is banned. While sports betting is banned by law in many states of the United States, FDU findings showed that approximately 18% of Americans, as well as 24% of the Americans residing in states with app-based betting sites being legal, are making legal sports betting. The survey showed that 23% of Americans below the age of 45 are likely to have placed a bet recently compared to only 9% who are 45 years of age and above. North-JerseyNews.com
A motion by Wayne Board of Trustee Harry Prassakos to reject the state’s new standards in health and sex education failed at a recent meeting. Prassakos insisted on a vote on his motion, citing a case last month in which the Garwood school board in Union County rejected the standards and that school officials should work faster to inform parents about changes to the curriculum because some were trying to figure out if they wanted to keep their children enrolled in the district. The Record
The Mountain Lakes School District and its leaders are being sued in federal court for allegedly discriminating against White students. The suit claims that district curriculum and activities related to the George Floyd case forced a “racial political ideology onto its students” in violation of federal law. Moreover, such programming created a “hostile educational environment” for students who were discriminated against because of their skin color. InsiderNJ
And finally…Peloton recently showed off its new NYC studio. NJ.com
